


We 3B

by NedryOS



Category: Original Work
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-09
Updated: 2020-06-09
Packaged: 2021-03-03 21:21:18
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,640
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24622306
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NedryOS/pseuds/NedryOS
Summary: Cassie finds a massive animal in her room, and all hell breaks loose.





	We 3B

Never got around to writing the intro chapters.

Chapter ~3

Cassie opened the door to her bedroom and screamed in shock. Her hands flew to her face, dropping her plate and glass to the floor where both shattered. 

Sitting on the floor at the foot of her bed was the biggest canine she had ever seen. It was completely still, both ears and eyes pointed right at her, and its tail lazily curled along its leg. The animal's fur was every shade of gray from nose to tail while its underside was golden brown.

Cassie jumped back and pulling the door shut with a loud bang. She tripped over her own feet and slammed heavily into the opposite wall. Her heart was racing and her mind completely rattled. 

“What the fuck?” she gasped as she slid to the floor. Almost instantly she was second guessing herself. 

'There is no possible way there could be a god damn wolf in my bedroom,' she thought. Cassie was rather dazed and confused, but slowly gathered herself enough to crawl on her knees over to the door. She opened the door inch by inch until she could just peek one eye past.

“Aaah!” she yelped, shutting the door and falling backwards again, because sure enough there was a giant apex predator casually lounging in the bedroom of her inner city apartment. She had absolutely no idea what to do other than be completely scared out of her mind.

The young woman sat there for a whole minute staring at the door to her bedroom. Then she looked underneath the door, where she could definitely see furry feet and legs. She sat up for another minute.

“Out of siiight, out of miiind” Cassie yelped at the noise, but it was just her cell phone ringing. But it was coming from just inside the door. ‘In the company of wolves’ she thought, ‘what…’.

And then she got very, very angry, slamming one fist against the ground. “That little bitch! I swear to god…” Cassie pulled herself up by the doorknob and then opened it slightly. The wolf was still there, just staring at her. Cassie reached around the door frame and grabbed the phone off her desk. Sure enough, it was Abby calling.

She yelled into the phone almost the instant it connected. “What the fuck?”

“I… what?” came Abby’s voice. 

“Why the fuck is there a fucking wolf! In my fucking room!” Cassie screamed.

Abby could hardly understand her. “What in the world are you yelling about?” 

The angry blonde took a deep breath and growled out “Is this some kind of prank?”

Abby took a moment to respond. “Um yeah sorry, honey, I was just… I didn't think you'd be that mad…” 

“Just a prank? Are you insane?” Cassie shrieked in response.

“I mean yeah it's just a little cereal, no big deal. No worse than usual, and you know I'm good for cleaning it up if you'd just let me in.”

There was silence for a few seconds as Cassie stared at her phone. 

“You th-” “Cereal?” Cassie interrupted her roommate, still yelling.

“Look, I'm sorry.” Abby said, “Just come open the door.”

Rather than an answer over the phone, Abby could hear the sounds of stomping towards the apartment door.

Cassie fumbled with the bolt and chain for a second and ripped the door open. Before Abby could get a word in edgewise Cassie grabbed her by the arm and pulled her in.

Abby was slightly afraid of how angry Cassie was. They had played many practical jokes on each other and always had a laugh. Over her protests and questions, Cassie half pushed and half pulled the smaller girl back towards the bedroom.

“Did you do this for some shitty music joke, Abby?” she was pointing at the door. Abby was quite confused, and as she opened the door, she saw the broken glass and spilled food on the floor.

“Oh jeez Cassie you know I wouldn't do that, you might get hurt and it's a bitch to clean up.”

Cassie looked at Abby, then into the room, then back at Abby, then down at the floor where Abby was looking. She reached up and grabbed the girl’s head.

“Not that, idiot, I dropped my dinner when I saw that!” Cassie pointed one hand and Abby’s head at the very large animal that was still watching the two girls as calmly as it was before.

“What?” Abby blurted out. She moved to take a step into the room but her roommate pulled her back out and closed the door.

“Don't!” she snapped. “it'll eat you!”

“Eat me? Why would you let a vicious dog in here?” Abby asked, confused.

Cassie sputtered, not sure what part to refute first. “Are you joking?” she asked finally.

“Of course not!, you know the Drew is looking for any reason to get us kicked out.”, she flipped a hand towards the door. “Pretty sure ‘dog that eats people’ is on that list.”

At that moment Cassie was 98% sure she'd be checking if ‘strangling a roommate’ was on that list. Out loud, she spoke relatively calmly.

“First of all, that's not a dog. That's a wolf. In fact, that's the biggest fucking wolf I have ever seen, in my life, and that includes on the internet. Second, where the hell would I have found something like that let alone the time to arrange this. Third, if I had brought it here, would I be having a bloody panic attack right now?”

“Wait, how do you know it’s a wolf?” Abby questioned.

Cassie’s eye twitched.

She opened the door just enough to get her elbow through and grabbed something on the back of the door. There was the sound of something tearing, and then she pulled her arm back, and slapped the item into Abby’s chest. 

Abby pulled the item, about a third of a poster, up and looked at the image. It was most of the front half of a canine. After staring at it for a few seconds, Abby cracked open the door herself and peeked in.

She stared at the enormous creature. It stared back. After watching it a moment, she could see the subtle movements of its breathing, her eyes went wide and she slowly closed the door.

“Why is there a wolf in your room?” she said, much calmer than she felt: Her hands were shaking.

Cassie grimaced. “I have no idea and obviously you don't either. Sorry for yelling at you.”

“No that's quite a reasonable reaction I'm sure.” her voice was rapidly rising in pitch.

“Come on,” Cassie gently grabbed her by the arm, “We shouldn't hang around here. Let's go call the cops or someone to come get that thing.”

The cops didn't believe Cassie, but sent out a car anyway on the off chance she was having a psychotic episode and needed assistance. Cassie could tell she was being humored but figured that was better than nothing.

Twenty minutes later when the officers finally showed up, Cassie again could tell they thought they were dealing with two strung out drug addicts who'd partied too hard on a Wednesday evening. Officer Burgard, the taller one, had trouble keeping the amusement and disbelief out of his voice, while the shorter one, Officer Kellerman tended to squeeze his eyes shut for a second in lieu of rolling them at her tale. Of course, no cop would say no to a free invite to search a junkie’s home, and so they dutifully marched up the stairs behind their complainants.

Cassie took them straight through to her closed bedroom door. She found herself becoming rather defensive when she noticed both had their guns drawn.

“Hold on, I didn't bring you up here to shoot it!” she said. “It hasn't done anything wrong. Not yet anyway.”

“It's procedure ma’am. Just making sure we're safe.” said Officer Burgard.

“So bashing down the door and scaring the shit out of the poor thing is somehow going to keep you safe? Or when it moves suddenly you're sure it's coming right at you and you shoot it and everything else a dozen times?”

“Ma’am, I assure you that's only going to happen if something or someone dangerous is on the other side.” he replied.

“Of course there’s something dangerous on the other side!” she insisted. “That’s what I told you when I called! But I wanted it taken out alive not shot to death!” 

“if there is a big bad wolf on the other side, animal control wouldn't be able to handle it anyway.” the officer shrugged.

“Then who the hell needs to be out here then?” Cassie demanded.

“Look we can't even be sure there is anything for someone to come out for,” said Officer Kellerman, “I need you to step back and let us do our job.”

“If you just need to see the damn thing, look under the door.” Cassie then knelt and looked herself. “He's laying down facing the door.” she looked back at the officers. “Well, do one of you want to look before murdering the damn thing?”

The officers glanced at each other for a moment, then Burgard holstered his gun, took out a cell phone, and quickly tapped into the camera. He knelt just beside the door frame and twisted the camera until he could see through the gap.

“Woah that's one big doggy.” he gasped. 

“It's a damn wolf like I said it was, sir.” Cassie crossed her arms over her chest.

“They really got a wolf in there?” the second officer asked. The first stood up and handed him the phone. The wolf could clearly be seen laying down by the bed. He let out a low whistle. “Yep.”

The first officer was on his radio. “Eleven six. There's very large canine here, possibly an actual wolf, currently contained in resident’s bedroom. Please advise.”

Cassie couldn't quite make out the reply.

“Negative it looks like it's sleeping and the resident said she had the door open multiple times and it didn't move.” He said into the radio as he wandered off towards the front door.

Officer Kellerman bent down to get a look himself, and was again shocked by the size of the animal inside the room. He stared at the wolf, and though he was reasonably sure it shouldn’t have been able to look him in the eye, he got the unsettling feeling it was. He stood up and motioned to Cassie. 

“You two should get out of here while it’s still contained.” he said. “Head back downstairs until we figure out what to do.”

Cassie glared at him again and leaned against the wall. “I’m not leaving until animal control or the zoo or whoever gets here so you two don’t shoot him.” She pointed at the gun that was still in his hand. He quickly holstered it while weighing his options. 

“Okay, well, look we’re not going to kill it if we don’t have to.” Officer Kellerman offered. 

She was having none of it. “I already had to stop you from having to kill it once.” she pointed out.

He disagreed, but didn’t feel it was a point worth quibbling. Shaking his head, he held his hand out to her. “Can we at least move into the front room? I’d feel a lot better with an actual wall between us and it, just on the off chance he doesn’t like us.” 

The sitting girl let out a rather petulant sigh, but grabbed his hand and allowed him to pull her to her feet and they walked into the living room. Cassie sat on the couch next to Abby while the policeman sat across from them and pulled out a notebook. “What time did you find the animal in your room?” he asked.

Cassie shrugged. “About five minutes before she called me. Probably less though.” She nudged Abby, who was staring at her phone. 

“Those kind of wolves don’t live on this continent,” Abby replied, “and they normally top out under three feet tall.” She looked up at Cassie and Officer Kellerman. “ I was looking almost eye to eye with him. That’s gotta be over five feet right?”

“I don’t think that sounds right.” the officer said, then paused, thinking. 

“Yeah I mean, he was big for sure, but not twice as big as a normal one.” Cassie put her hands out in front of her, trying to visualize the measurements.

“Oh right,” Officer Kellerman snapped his fingers, “check and see if that was measured to the shoulders, that’s the way they do regular dogs.” After a few seconds, Abby confirmed that.

“That’s still about a foot taller than normal right? That’s insane.” She was holding her arm up to her chest, estimating where its shoulders would be. “Is An-Tech missing a science project?”

“I don’t know, ma’am, but I assure you we will find out. Even if no crime was committed over this, it’s simply too absurd to not look into.” the cop said.

“I agree, and so does Animal Control.” Officer Burgard stepped back into the room, no longer on his radio. “They’re rounding up some equipment and should be here in about twenty minutes.” 

“Are you two going to hang around til they get here?” Abby asked.

Kellerman nodded. “Unless we get an urgent call, I’d like to stay and ask you a few more questions about the apartment and whatnot, maybe check in with the manager here. Do they live in this building?” 

“Yeah,” Cassie answered pulling out her phone. “His name’s Andrew Marshall. He lives two floors up on the left, 5C.”

“Wait!” Abby interrupted, “he’s so totally going to have to report this if he finds out!” 

At that exact moment, a very wide man stuck his head in through the open apartment door. “You’re damn right I’m going to report you two having the police in my building again. What is it this time? Another ‘stolen check’?”

Abby groaned. “That’s bullshit Mr. Marshall, you got mad because we didn’t like your steaks and took our check late!” she said, annoyed. “What are you even doing here?” 

“Someone called the cops to my building and I wanted to know why.” He huffed. 

“And how did you know we’d been called out?” Officer Burgard asked.

The man rolled his eyes. “I’ve already been over this with the department several times. Rebroadcasting unencrypted communication is not illegal and in fact helps keep the larger community aware of what is going on day to day.”

“Oh, you’re *that* Drew Marshall.” Officer Kellerman smiled. He tapped a device attached to his vest. “You know, I actually appreciate you convincing the council to approve the body cams for us. It’s really cleaned up the office the last few months. Unofficially of course.” 

The man practically beamed at the praise. “Well, you’re welcome. I don’t like fighting,” he said, gesturing at his obvious weight issue, “but I just can’t stand police abusing their power.” 

“Well then, if you’d be willing to answer a few questions if you can, without making a big deal out of it, we’d be greatly appreciative as well.” said Officer Burgard. “I assume you know in general what this is about?”

“Yeah Miss DeVeaux found an animal in her room and freaked out. Your dispatcher thought she was crazy, but then the dog squad got called in so I assume it’s real?” Andrew asked.

Officer Burgard grinned and pulled out his phone and showed him the picture of the beast. Andrew whistled. “That’s one big doggo.”

Cassie rolled her eyes and muttered. “It’s a wolf.”

“Well if you know everything about the bloody thing, I’m sure you know how it got in here too, do you?” He asked sarcastically.

Cassie and Abby both flipped him off.

Officer Burgard stepped between their line of sight and gestured the older man to the hall. “Can we talk outside please?” he said, “I don’t think they invited you in after all.” 

“Yeah yeah, sure.” Drew replied. “I’m reasonably certain I can give you all the dirt on these very mature ladies in 3B.” He said the last bit loud enough to the ladies to hear it from the hall.

“Next time I find a camera I’m sicking the wolf on you Drew!” Cassie yelled out to him. Officer Kellerman looked incredibly concerned by this comment.

“Did you really find a camera?” He asked.

Cassie chuckled a little and waved it off. “No he’s an asshole not a pervert. He sometimes does a decent job being manager, we just like to give each other shit. Keeps things interesting.”

The officer ran his hand down his face and took a deep breath. “Alright can we get a little more serious here? You have essentially a monster in your room, and you don’t know how, and I’d like to figure out how, so can you answer a few of my questions and we’ll at least try to figure this out a little?” He was rather frustrated with the interruptions and side discussion.

Abby nodded her head in agreement while Cassie remembered his first question. Since she had her phone handy, she looked it up herself. “Abby called at 7:31. The last time I was in my room was…” she flipped to another app. “6:04 I said I was getting in the shower and left my phone on my desk. I spent about 40 minutes-” 

“Only 40?” Abby interrupted her.

“Shush!” Cassie smacked her roommate’s knee. “Yes I’m pretty sure it was around 6:45 when I got out because I turned the tv on in the kitchen and the weather channel was on, and they do the Local on the 8s thing and I caught the one before I flipped over to wait for the Wheel at 7:00. It took me about 40 minutes to make dinner. I made pork chops and baked a potato. I was going to sit at my computer and eat in my room right after the Wheel ended, so somewhere between 7:25 and 7:30.”

“What about before this happened? When did you both leave and when were you back?” 

Abby answered first. “I got up at 6:30 this morning and left by 7:30. You were up just after seven right?” 

Cassie nodded. “Yeah and I left probably eight o'clock. Double checked the locks on the way out too. I got back about 4:40 or so? I’m sure I have some tweet or something I could find if it comes down to needing the exact minute.”

“Alright, what about the windows, and your bedroom doors? Do you normally make sure they’re shut and locked?” The police officer was jotting down notes and questions as he thought of them.

Abby looked a bit red, so Cassie answered. “She keeps the heat on around here. The windows haven’t been open in months probably. My bed is on an inside wall so we usually sleep there.”

“Together?” he asked, pausing. Cassie grabbed Abby’s hand and hummed affirmatively. 

“Alright, so you usually leave the doors closed?”

Cassie frowned “No there’s no need to really.”

“Oh. Miss Kahn, did either of you shut the second bedroom when you got back?” 

Abby shook her head. “No I didn’t get back until I’d called Cassie at whatever time she said. I needed her to let me in. We went right to her door, looked in, freaked out, then left.”

The police officer frowned severely for a second, then stood up and walked to where he could see down the hallway. “Neither of you closed the bedroom door?”

Abby shook her head again, and Cassie added “No and I’m pretty sure I left my door open when I showered too.”

The police officer pulled out his gun and held it at his side “You guys never went in Miss Kahn’s bedroom did you? You two need to get up very quickly and get out in the hallway.” He pushed the button on his radio. “John the second bedroom is not cleared.”

“What!?” came the reply.

“Nobody’s been in the second bedroom and the door should have been open. Get down here now!” he said harshly, trying not to yell.

“If there’s another one don’t shoot that one either!” Cassie said.

“Dammit Miss DeVeaux,” he growled. “I’m more worried about there being a person in there. And I’m still worried about there being a person in your room too! One of you tell me what the second bedroom looks like, where the windows, bed, and closet are.”

“It’s like, the walkway goes from the door to the window, the bed is on the right, the closet is a walkin with a sliding door on the left. Oh the bathroom door is before the closet door.”

“Alright that’s good enough, now leave quickly and quietly.”

The two girls were almost barreled over by Officer Burgard rushing through the door at the same time.

“When’s the last time anyone was in there?” Burgard asked.

“Miss Devaux said both doors were open when she went to shower at six. Neither closed any doors, and the first anyone noticed the door was closed was about a minute ago. Nobody’s been in or out.”

“Should we wait for backup?” asked the taller officer.

“Even if we did, it's not like we can all fit.” Kellerman keyed up his radio. “Dispatch eleven six we’re clearing two additional rooms give us an open channel” 

“Eleven six channel seven.” came the reply.

Burgard clicked over to channel seven and turned his radio to open broadcast, and they moved up towards the doors.

“Checking under the doors.” he said hoarsely, and knelt down. “The wolf is still in the first bedroom… nothing in the second… can't see into the bathroom. Do both?”

Kellerman nodded. They each grabbed one doorknob. “BHPD if anyone is in there you have three seconds to announce yourself!” he yelled.

No reply came, so ten seconds later they each burst into a room.

Kellerman yelled “Clear!” first, as it was obvious there was no place to hide in the bathroom.

Burgard said to him and the radio “Bathroom is clear, bedroom is clear, nothing under the bed. The window’s open. Need to check the closet.” he grabbed the handle again and repeated his announcement. “BHPD if you're in the closet and do not tell me right now you will be shot!”

There was no reply.

Two seconds later he wrenched the door open.

“Clear!” he said. The closet was empty of living things. “Dispatch these rooms are clear, just the one with the wolf left.” he shut off the broadcasting.

“Roger eleven two. Animal control is 2 minutes out.” Dispatch replied.

Kellerman leaned out of the bedroom door and saw the three heads peeking around the front door. “You ladies can come on back. Mr. Marshall you should head on up to your apartment unless the ladies invite you in.” 

Abby and Cassie looked at each other for a second, then Abby shrugged a little. Cassie grimaced. “I'd prefer you didn't…” she said to Drew. He nodded.

“No worries, I'm not sure I want to spend my evening being eaten anyway. Good luck!” he waved and walked away.

Cassie and Abby resumed their short trek to the master bedroom to rejoin the officers. It was quite cold with both Windows open. Burgard was shutting one while Kellerman had his head and shoulders sticking out the other.

“See anything missing or messed up?” Burgard asked. The two girls glanced around a bit but the only thing out of the ordinary was the temperature and the open window. Cassie told him as much.

Kellerman closed the window he was looking out of. “None of the snow here looks disturbed at all. Dog crew’s here though. I’m going to go let them in.”

“This is just insane.” Abby said. “I don’t feel comfortable being here Cassie.” She pulled a small suitcase out of her closet and started throwing things in it. “I’m going… I can’t stay here.”

Cassie pulled out her phone and called her cousin. It picked up in two rings. “Hey Steph, it’s Cassie… Well we’re having a bit of a crisis at the apartment, and need a place to stay for a night or two until we take care of it… No we’ll be fine but Abby is kinda freaked out and would rather not be here right now… Thank you Steph. I’m going to send for an Uber for Abby now and I’ll be over later… Oh awesome thanks so much… Alright see you in a bit. Love ya.”

Cassie wrapped her girlfriend in a hug from behind and spoke softly in her ear. “Abby, we’re going to go stay at my cousin Steph’s for a few days until we figure this out alright? She’s coming to get you, and I’ll drive your car over when everyone’s gone okay?” Abby agreed with a soft “okay.”

The two girls quickly packed some of Abby’s belongings, and Cassie escorted her down to the lobby. One guy in a green parka that said “animal control” and three others were loading up a different elevator as they got out. They were cracking jokes as the doors closed. Cassie waited at the door with Abby for her cousin to arrive and after a quick kiss and a long hug goodbye, she headed back up to her apartment. 

Chapter ~3+1

In the 20 minutes she was away, her living room was turned into a battlestation for Animal Control. They had catch poles, two crates, and various other items laid across the floor and coffee table. Cassie stopped at the door and just observed.

“Yes I am one thousand percent sure this is necessary.” Officer Burgard was saying to what was apparently the leader. “I’m not tryin to get chewed up or shot at so we’re doing it my way.”

“Shooting it is the last resort, but safety comes first.” Kellerman stated. “We already discussed this. Now are you ready?” 

“Yeah we’re ready.” said the leader, a vaguely latino looking man. “Just a fuckin dog but lets get this over with.” 

The two officers drew their guns and situated themselves one behind the other against the right side wall on the handle side of the door. The four other men stacked on the left side wall, a few feet behind the officers. Three had thick leather gloves up to the elbow and held a large catch pole, while the last held an air rifle.

“Alright I’m opening the door. I’ve got the dog, you clear the rest of the room.” Burgard nodded to his partner.

“BHPD we are coming in!” he yelled “If anyone is inside this room tell us now or you will be shot!” He waited a few seconds, then twisted the handle. It slowly opened. When it hit the wall behind it, both officers stepped into the doorway, sweeping the room without entering.

“Clear?” Kellerman asked. “Just the wolf.” Burgard answered. 

“What’s it doing?” the latino man asked.

“Just sitting there givin’ me the bloody stink eye.” came the answer. “Take a look.” The officers stepped slightly to the side to give the other four room to see.

As the four men arranged themselves around the bedroom door, Cassie could hear their shock and disbelief. The animal was sitting upright and its eye level was easily five feet. It was nearly staring down at the shortest of the dog catchers.

“What the fuck Marty, you didn’t tell me this was a wolf!” said the man holding the rifle. “I don’t have anything that won’t just piss him off!” He backpedaled into the living room as he was talking. 

Everyone just stared at him.

“What? I knock out forty pound penguins with this fuckin thing for the university. You need a game warden not a damn drop out!” The panic was evident in his voice. He grabbed a single case off the floor and was out the door before anyone thought to stop him.

“That’s fucked up.” one of the remaining men said. Kellerman ran his hand down his face yet again. He was definitely getting a headache now. 

“Look, we got five of us here and like twelve different poles. He looks pretty well behaved, we can get him downstairs between the lot of us can’t we?”

None of the five looked very confident about that, but short of just shooting the thing they had no other choice. 

"You first, Marty." Said one of the animal control officers. Both cops trained their guns on the animal as the first pole went through the door between them. Marty moved with extreme caution and after almost a full minute, he pulled the steel rope on the back of the pole which tightens the noose, and seemed to relax a bit.

“Alright, Enrique, you’re next, then Joe.” Marty said, and the second man affixed his pole in the same manner. The third animal control agent repeated the feat. Burgard then holstered his gun, and left his spot to retrieve another catch pole from the living room. Curious about the complete lack of reaction from the animal, Cassie hoarsely whispered to get the police officer’s attention. 

“What the hell’s going on?” she hissed.

“I have no fucking clue Miss Devaux. It’s just sitting there letting us tie him up. Don’t get in front of it once we’re out here.” He shrugged and walked back to the doorway and stuck his through the door just like the others.

“I’m not sure five’s going to be any better than four,” Kellerman said, “But having a firepower advantage will if he fights. You guys go ahead and start pulling him out, I’ll cover.”  
The lead Animal Control officer started to protest but a look from the other officer silenced him.

They started pulling. “Alright come on buddy let’s-WOAH!” As Burgard began talking to the wolf, it stood startling all five men, as well as Cassie who was caught off guard by his shout. They each began to back up as they guided it towards the doorway. Enrique and Joe went towards Abby’s room while Marty and Burgard came towards Cassie and the front of the apartment. The wolf’s huge head was just through the doorway when all hell broke loose.

The animal made a horrible half-howl half-screech and jumped back into the room, pulling the catch poles with it. Enrique and Marty fell to the floor, and Marty apparently forgot he could drop the pole and screamed as he was dragged inside. Burgard was able to stay on his feet and keep control of the pole, but couldn’t do much against the large animal and was dragged inside, while Joe let his end go and jumped back. Startled by the sudden motion, Kellerman fired at the wolf. Cassie ran down the hallway yelling at him to stop, but he got off three more shots before he realized he was closer to hitting his own partner than the animal.

Despite her painfully ringing ears, Cassie pushed past him and ran into the room. She could see Marty trying to stand up while Burgard was trying to push the snarling animal into the corner. There was blood coming from the wolf’s paw and Marty’s shirt was torn in several places. Cassie suddenly remembered she’d dropped her dinner in the doorway almost two hours prior and turning around she could see there was glass everywhere.

“Fuck!” she shouted. “It’s the glass! He stepped on glass!” 

“Shoot him!” yelled Marty in response, barely on his knees.

“Get the poles!” Burgard commanded as the other three came in behind Cassie. Joe and Enrique went for them but Kellerman still had his gun out, and Cassie stood between him and the wolf.

“Don’t shoot! He just stepped on glass!” she cried.

“Was anyone hit?” Kellerman asked. “Fuck!” he keyed up his radio. “Eleven six send backup and a bus immediately. Shots fired unknown injuries. This fucking wolf got away from us.”

As Kellerman was screaming into the microphone, and Burgard was busy trying to hold the wolf at bay, Marty pulled the officer’s gun out of his holster. 

Burgard immediately took his attention off the wolf and spun on the smaller man. “Hey What the fuck are you-”

Marty wasn’t able to figure out the safeties on the gun before both were toppled over the bed by the wolf and gun went flying out of Marty’s hands. To their left Cassie was hit across the back by the pole held by Enrique, knocking her into Kellerman. Both fell right through the door into the highway where Kellerman’s gun discharged as it slid down the hall.

Cassie scrambled to her feet and ran back into the room not having any idea at all what she could or should be doing, while Kellerman went for his gun and yelled “Officer down!” into his microphone.

“Hey!” he heard Cassie yell. “Stop that! Right NOW!”

When Kellerman made it back to the bedroom a few seconds later, the only noise was the frantic organization by the radio dispatchers. Enrique was holding his clearly broken arm to his chest, sitting against the near left wall. Burgard was on the floor on the opposite side of the bed looking dazed as blood flowed from his forehead. Cassie was standing next to the bed, reaching out to the massive wolf. Marty was on the bed cowering in the fetal position beneath the wolf. The wolf was staring at Cassie, with its mouth closed and making no noise.

“I vouched for you, you know.” she chastised the very large wild animal. “I told him not to shoot you. This is the exact opposite of how you’re supposed to repay someone for saving your life.”

After a second, to Cassie’s surprise, he slightly raised his bleeding front right paw.

“Okay yeah that was my bad,” she admitted. ”but I can fix that. I can’t fix bullet holes.”

They stared at each other for another minute, with Burgard moaning and Marty whimpering. 

Then the wolf leaned over and licked her hand once.

“Alright see this is okay. I’ll be okay, you’ll be okay. Can you just uh, let him go.” She motioned to Marty.

The big animal huffed once and turned himself around, all of the poles clanking and dragging all over everything. He laid down at the foot of the bed, his bleeding paw hanging slightly over the edge. When he finished moving, he looked up and stared between Kellerman and Cassie.

“Is he gone?” Marty’s cracked voice came out from behind his arms. The wolf almost immediately started a long howl, to which Marty responded with his own fearful scream.

“Stop that!” Cassie snapped. The wolf did so but Marty screamed until he felt her hands drag him off the bed. He hit the floor with a painful “oof” then scrambled past her and out the door, not even looking at the two men he’d brought with him.

Cassie cautiously walked around the bed and the wolf. She wasn’t as afraid of it as she was earlier in the evening, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t concerned at all. “Just relax for a minute.” she said to the canine.

On the other side of the bed she checked on the bleeding police officer. He was not in good shape. Blood was dripping down his face and he was clearly dazed. “Jesus what’d you do to him?” she muttered towards the wolf.

Meanwhile Kellerman was coordinating his department’s mass response while trying to get the other two men out of the bedroom. 

“One white probable, four green, one possible red.” He said into his radio. “Possible additionals in the apartment below. I fired four shots and I don’t know where they all went. We’re in 3B.” Once out in the hallway pulling Joe and Enrique, he continued. “The wolf is still in the room but some fucking how it’s listening to Miss Devaux. I have no idea what to do here and Burgard has a pretty nasty head wound.”

Making his way back to the room for the third time, Kellerman once again stopped short at the door. Cassie was holding her shirt on his partner’s head, leaving her completely topless. A nasty red and blue bruise was already forming across her back. She caught him out of the corner of her eye.

“Get over here and hold this on his head.” she demanded. “How long til the medics get here?” 

The officer shook his head. “Less than a minute. They’re not going to go past this thing, can we get him out of here?”

She wasn’t sure which ‘him’ he was referring to, so she answered for both. “This one’s hurt really bad, we shouldn’t move him. That one is not going to want to move until I fix his foot most likely, and I have no idea if he’s going to keep listening to me or flip out again.”

The wolf startled them both by slipping off the bed and limping towards Kellerman. The policeman had his gun out in an instant, but the wolf just stopped and stared at him for a few seconds. Feeling oddly chastised, he put the gun away and stepped to the side to let the animal pass. Still dragging three poles, It leapt over the entire mess of glass then continued limping towards the other bedroom.

“Works for me, come hold this.” she said, and Kellerman rushed to her side. They switched and she stood up and walked towards the door when she heard a shout followed by more shooting. 

“Stop shooting!” she screamed, running into the hallway.”Cease fire!” Kellerman shouted behind her. “Stop! Stop!” she screamed again. Standing in the doorway were two more officers pointing their guns right at her. “It’s not his fault! He didn’t do anything!” 

She turned and ran towards the second bedroom praying the animal was still alive. She stumbled around the corner of the door and smashed to the floor. But she quickly dragged herself up and noticed the wolf was sitting on the bed, just like it was in her room. She fell into him, wrapping her arms around its neck. “Oh god are you alright? Did they get you?” She felt around his whole massive body not seeing or feeling any blood. She grabbed his head with both hands and looked it right in the eye. “Thank god you’re alright. I’m so sorry those idiots…” It licked her face softly. She giggled. “let me get that glass out of your paw buddy.”

But as she went to grab his paw, she noticed there was a lot of blood. It was all over his leg. And it was all over the bed. And it was all over her leg. 

And all over her stomach.

And then she tried to stand up but instead fell backwards, landing painfully, burningly hard on the floor. She looked confused down at her legs, and at her hands, and to her right, where the two officers were staring in horror. She yelled out “You fucking shot me!” as everything started to fade to black.

Chapter ~3+2 ish or so

So it turns out that it is actually incredibly hard to die around these parts, however that didn’t stop getting shot from easily being in the top ten of things that suck. With paramedics taking cover in the hallway as Cassie got shot, the response time to get her to the hospital was, among other things, really fantastic for their monthly metrics. Unfortunately for the injured woman, that meant they were able to keep her conscious and it hurt the entire way from her girlfriend’s bedroom to the surgical suite at the hospital.

Cassie came out of the anesthetic coma several hours later vomiting before she was even fully conscious. Her PACU nurse -- a hovering blue blur with a voice roughly between a jackhammer and a jet engine with a vague undertone of tinnitus -- helped her as much as he could but the violent heaves shook her whole body. Her right leg and pelvis were fairly stationary due to the various plastic devices locking them in place, but there’s not an easy way to stop a patient’s stomach from clenching. After a while, she was able to catch her breath enough to speak in between retching.

“What did they do with the wolf?” Her voice was so hoarse the nurse couldn’t understand her, and less than half the words even made it out. She couldn’t understand the woman either with her ears pounding so the point was moot anyway. Cassie felt cold ice water on her lips and got two gulps down before puking it back up. 

Overall it was a net positive for the soreness in her throat. The same could not be said about her stomach.

This went on for almost a full day with several small bouts of exhausted sleep thrown in there for good measure. Eventually the various pains dulled at the same time Cassie was awake and a nurse was nearby and she was able communicate. By then she was in a recovery room being prepped for a bed upstairs..  
.  
“Wolf?” she croaked. 

“How are you feeling dear?” she asked. 

Cassie shook her head lightly then closed her eyes, pushing her head into the pillow. “Bad. Everything hurts. Head’s better” It was pretty painful to speak, but she desperately wanted to know what was going on. “Where’s the wolf?”

“Wolf?” she asked softly. “You were shot, honey. Nobody told me anything about a wolf.” She shook her head, confused, and waved Cassie’s question off. “But we’re just about ready to take you to your room. Just waiting for the doctor to drop by and sign off, and they will know more.” The nurse was clacking away on a keyboard in a way that managed to be more annoying than the constant pain in her stomach.

“Some people have been waiting to see you,” The nurse said, “but we don’t have a release form so we could only tell them you were stable, and couldn’t let them come back here. There will be more forms to fill out but for now if you want a uhh, Miss Stephanie Munroe, to be able to see you, just scribble somewhere around here.” She held a tablet and a touchscreen pen up to Cassie’s hand and helped her weakly draw something that might have been a name if she was in pre-K. 

“Alright, now this is your cousin, she said?” the nurse asked, to which Cassie nodded. “Right. Does anyone else need to be on the list right now? Parents, roommates, boyfriends?”

“Abby,” she groaned out. 

“Oh right, Miss Kahn. She had a bit of a breakdown last night and is a few doors up resting.” The nurse stood up and went to step out. “I’ll go see if she’s awake.”

Cassie was already getting emotional just thinking about her girlfriend. Adding the medication, highly restrictive casts, and the pain, Cassie was feeling pretty terrible. There were tears trickling down her cheeks as the curtain to her room opened again, and several doctors came in.

“Good morning Miss Deveaux,” the first man said loudly. “My name is Doctor Zechosewicz but Dr. Zed is perfectly okay, too.” The man was tall, dark, handsome, and had a strong voice and a perfect smile with just a hint of cologne. Cassie instantly hated him.

He flipped a switch on a wall to Cassie’s left, and several xrays, scans, and color images of her body appeared. The doctor pointed to each one as he explained to his patient what happened.

“You were shot three times. One forty-five caliber entered the right side of your right leg about twenty centimeters below the hip, shattered your femur, nicked the circumflex artery, exited the other side, glanced off your left patella, breaking it in half. One forty caliber bullet entered the right side of your chest between the fifth and sixth ribs, skimmed the top of your liver, went straight through your right lung, and exited between the sixth and seventh ribs just three millimeters to the right of your spine. The resulting cavitation seems to have torn your stomach open but no other major damage to the intestines or other organs were spotted and we stopped all of the internal bleeding. The last forty caliber bullet was largely superficial entering just above and to the left of your naval and exiting your side without even entering your abdominal cavity.” 

Dr. Zed paused there for a moment. “You were a hot mess when you came in, but over all you got off easy, no fragmentation.”

Cassie was somewhat familiar with anatomy and very familiar with police procedurals, and figured he was underestimating it. She nodded her head in agreement. 

“The chest and stomach wounds were relatively easy to fix, just cleaning and stitching. Your liver was not punctured and should be able to heal nicely, while your lung will have to be monitored closely in order to ensure it stays well. If you notice some trouble breathing it is because we had to block the lung internally to keep it from stretching out the stitches. Keeping your stomach together will be painful and require a liquid diet for the foreseeable future. The biggest issue right now is your leg.” He sighed and continued a little softer.

“I’ll be up front with you, amputation is not out of the question. This is a severe injury and while we have several steps we will take before getting to that point, these sorts of injuries are prone to infection, rejection of grafts and donor material, muscle atrophy, and nerve loss.”

“What have you done so far?” Cassie asked, gripping the sides of her bed. 

He pointed to another slide. “For right now we’ve reassembled the bone as best we could inside an osteoblast sleeve and a couple pieces of hardware to keep it straight, removed any fragments that might pose further risk of separation, and fixed the artery. We don’t believe the sciatic nerve was severed, however there may be damage we can’t see, and the muscle was pretty well shredded.”

“When will I know what’s going to happen?” she asked.

A female doctor spoke up. This doctor was easily the most average looking white woman that Cassie had ever seen, except for the rainbow ribbon that held her hair off her shoulders. “My name is Doctor Bell, and I’m going to be evaluating you in order to determine what sort of schedule we can have for surgery and recovery.” 

“She’s going to need more surgery?” a familiar voice asked loudly. “Abby!” Cassie tried to yell, but with the pain in her lung and side it came out very soft.

“Be careful Miss Kahn!” commanded the annoying nurse from earlier. Abby very calmly and slowly pushed her way in, grabbed her girlfriend's head, and smashed their lips together. The emotional reunion lasted a few seconds longer than anyone else was comfortable with and ended when something in Cassie spasmed and she let out a small “ow”. 

“Jesus Cass, you scared the shit out of me!” Abby whispered hoarsely. “Nobody would tell me how you got shot and my dad had to send up a lawyer to make them let me in here!” 

“Your dad’s awesome.” replied Cassie, and Abby hummed in agreement. “We can talk about that after the doctors leave though.”

“Oh! Right.” Abby’s face turned pink as she looked around at the audience. “Um, yeah you were saying something about surgery?” she said as she dragged a chair next to Cassie’s bed.

“Yes,” said Dr. Bell. “I’ll be running a few tests to determine nerve and muscle function as well as monitoring the injury site for any infection. We’ll be starting in just a few hours, once we’ve got you settled in your room upstairs. At the very least she’ll need restitched as the closures were purely temporary to allow room for swelling. As we get the results, we’ll know what’s needed. That’s about all I have for you, anyone else?”

The other doctors all shook their head or otherwise indicated the negative. “Okay do you have any more questions Miss Deveaux?”

“No, not right now I think. Just… Thanks for saving me.” her voice was very broken at that, and Abby squeezed her hand.

Dr. Bell laughed softly, “Hey you did all the hard work for us being able to fix up so easily and staying strong the whole way.” 

“Yeah,” Dr. Zed added “Let’s see how that leg’s looking in few months and hopefully you can think about thanking us. Until then, just do your best to relax and recover.”

At that, the doctors cleared out.

Chapter ~3+3

With the doctors all gone, Cassie laid back and closed her eyes. Abby sat next to her, holding her hand for a couple hours until the pain woke Cassie up again. 

A new nurse came in and administered some medications. “Your room is ready upstairs. We just need to check your vitals and meds one last time before we transfer you.”

“Okay.” Cassie grunted. As they worked around her and Abby, she answered several questions about her pain and medication level, which mostly consisted of “it sucks but is bearable.”

After almost am hour they began to wheel her out into the hallway and down towards the elevator. As they passed one of the rooms, someone inside yelled out to them “Hey, are those the troublemakers from 3B?”

The nurse wasn’t going to stop until Cassie spoke up. “Stop, go back a second do we know that person?” The nurse backed her up until she could see through the doorway, where a man was hobbling forward, and a woman was chastising him. 

“John you’re supposed to stay in bed!” she was saying, but he was waving her off.

As he got to the side of Cassie’s bed, Abby finally recognized him. “Officer Burgard!” She gasped. “What are you doing here?” 

The police officer had a thick bandage around his head and was dragging a piece of equipment behind him.

“Oh I had a bit of a run in with a lady and her dog, got knocked around a bit.” he said humorously.

Cassie snorted, painfully. “Must have been a pretty mean lady if she left you in the hospital as long as someone who got shot.”

“Right old bitch that one. Waited til after I was completely knocked out to flash me - OW!” his wife punched him on the arm, but Cassie was smiling. She had, after all, done exactly that. “But yeah I smashed my skull on one of your dressers, fractured my skull and gave me a severe concussion. I’m feeling better, but they've kept me down here cuz I had some pretty severe swelling. I’m going to be off duty for a while.” he frowned.

“Sorry to hear that sir, I feel sorta responsible for this whole thing.” Cassie said.

“No need to call me sir, just John is fine since I won’t have a badge for a while, but uh...” He leaned in to whisper in her ear. “This ‘whole thing’ is going to be a shitshow. Get a lawyer, and don’t even think about taking any blame.” He stood straight again, and put his hand softly on her shoulder. “Hope you get better soon Cassie.”

“You too, John” Abby answered for Cassie since she was silently frowning up at the man as he reentered his room.

\-- I had a genuine plot in mind but its been years since I wrote anything here.


End file.
